Archives: boring

Write a comics review? Write the diary? Write a comics review? Write the diary? Write a comics review? Write the diary?

…..

Well, as there are details that I would like to say about what Jack’s been doing at school, & as my memory is feeling scorched by tiredness (detail eludes me) – reviews it is. Maybe I’ll be back writing more diary in a minute…

Full of good intention.  I thought I might
get to sleep sooner last night, but failed as usual. Did get all
the tweaks done on my website that I had intended, but did not
really get far enough to actually posting up a new ZUM! review or
2, which I had intended.  Ah, well.
Jack was really chatty yesterday.  Quite full of wanting to
tell me things & join in.  Louise said he had been all
day.  Louise’s mum had bought us a copy of the new Ikea
catalogue, (Louise’s auntie Cathleen had had it dropped on her
doorstep & had put it aside for us, & Louise’s mum picked
it up for us when she went round; Cathleen said that she had put it
aside as she thought that we might be interested, so Louise’s mum
brought it along for us, but she’s never had one delivered , &
she wonders why Cathleen has a delivery and… oh, sorry just
started relating ‘as told’ by Louise’s mum).  Where was I…
Ah, Jack went through he whole catalogue with me, chortling at
things he thought might be ‘funny’.  It would have been quite
amusing for me, had I not had quite such a testy day at work. 
Perhaps I was in a negative mood in general, but people calling up
with problems – things like; an involved
explanation of a problem, then a couple of questions on my part
that indicating that the imagined problem was nothing of the sort,
& then finding that they were not even in front of the computer
to do any diagnosis; and the general attitude of ‘business users’
when you answer the phone, greet them, & they greet you as if
they have just discovered a talking dog shit… sigh…  I
guess I’m feeling a little over busy at the moment.  Such
things do not usually bother me, I’m not exactly you’re ‘sensitive’
type in such matters, but you need the chance to maintain an
equilibrium between calls.  Not really possible at the
moment.  One of the company bosses called yesterday, I started
treating him as a normal caller; Opening schpiel, listen – ‘Problems
dialling’? OK are you windows or mac?…  He butted in & had
to tell me twice who he was before the cycle of ‘getting on with
it’ was broken.  ‘Problems dialling’ was about people trying to call me
– Hah!  “How many calls do you take?”  “I dunno – I just
answer the phone as much as possible”.  Oops started to rant
on there.
Jack was still in a burbling mood when he went to sleep – wanting
to tell me about his day in Hebden Bridge with mum &
grandma.  There was some burnt wood in the river (probably by
the playground) & something blocking the road at some
point.  I turned out the light, as he was keeping himself
awake with the chatter…   He was quite for a bit, &
then said, “I’m frightened,daddy.” which was a surprise.  He
was concerned about the shadows on the window – that were only the
shape of the window itself.  I hadn’t considered this… He is
getting more aware of is surroundings, as said before & he had
not really had the chance to drift off to sleep in the dark
recently as the days have been long enough for him to miss
them.  Poor little one.  I explained that it was the
window & there was no reason to be afraid, reassured that I was
there & he seemed to accept it, as he drifted off to sleep
OK… but …poor lamb.

(Workward train)
Well, that didn’t work yesterday. The Ricicles I had for breakfast
had vengeance & caused considerable pain. I lasted until @
10:30 before I concluded that work just was not … working, &
left for home. Got an appointment at the doctors & found that
there is in fact a bug doing the rounds in town & I am yet
another victim. No real mention of what it actually is, but stay
off solids, drink frequently & have some paracetamol &
another tablet to keep stomach acid down… sigh.

(Homeward train)
Hmmm thinking about it, I seem to have 30 days worth of
prescription… I sincerely hope that this is precautionary. I
would rather not live on fluids only for a month!
So, there is no other diagnosis than ‘bug’. You have to wonder
from where you’ve caught it. Well – the kids were off food for a
period last week & Eve had a particularly bad day last Thursday
(Louise confirms that as the day she did rather a lot of nappys).
They are better now, I am on day 4. So did I catch it from them…?
I dunno really. I’m inclined to think not. The lads in the office
are not enthused by the thought I have a ‘bug’. Cotangent? Who
knows… heh – well, we’ll find out, I guess. If everyone else if
off, then that might force some reappraisal of the staffing levels
we currently suffer work under.
Today’s been one of those days – as we have ceased an old phone
number – where I constantly put the phone down & immediately
pick it up & also every so often have my ear chewed by an irate
customer. sigh.
As I managed to get home early yesterday & Louise was out with
the kids for a bit, I managed to get some time for potentially
useful things – which I filled with sleeping. I had terrible
gut-rot remember? When Louise got back I was a little surprised to
see that she had no Jack. This was a relief really as I was as well
not having him there to crawl over me. When Eve woke she did her
best at that, but was not so difficult (or heavy) as Jack in that
respect. I was able to loll on the sofa for the most part.
Jack had gone off with Leila & her mum & dad) for the day.
Leila lives a fair bit further from the centre of town than we do
& was apparently missing the lack of social activity from
school. When Jack came back he was happy & Leila said that she
did not want him to go (aw!). All was amicable tho on leaving – no
protestations & Leila’s mum said that Jack had been as good as
gold.
The kids have had haircuts recently by the way. Eve has had her
1st haircut – which was really just a fringe trim. She needed it
really as her fringe was forever getting in her eyes. Having a
straight fringe is odd though. It changes the aspect of her face a
little. She is still a pretty little thing, but her mischeviousness
is even more evident. It shines through those grins of her even
more.
Being off in the afternoon also gave me leave to read the
newspaper. There were articles on child safety & parental
supervision. There has recently been a court case in the UK where
the parents of a girl who was killed (with her friend) playing on a
railway were found guilty of her manslaughter due to ‘gross
negligence’. This has sparked a few articles hand wringing on the
subject. It makes you more paranoid. At the moment Jack is enjoying
a certain amount of freedom on his bike. Just round the back street
& cul-de-sac where we live, but nonetheless he is not visible
to us at all times. He is usually with the other kids who are on
their hols at the moment – most of which are older than he (up to
at least 9 years for one of the girls, I guess). They seem to look
after each other well, but occasionally Jack will come back crying
(usually as he has fallen over). The thing is, you ask yourself,
“Am I supervising him enough?”. Well, no in that you do not now
exactly where he is (but you do basically) & yes in that you
are assured he is basically safe. It would be foolish to be
‘spying’ on him all the time as the other kids (& he) would
resent the intrusion, but kids are kids – so the compromise has to
be to just ensure you eyeball him every so often to ensure that you
know what’s going on. The balance between freedom &
responsibility – eek!

Feeling better? Hopefully. Still went to work yesterday as well,
but sleeping on the train seemed the most important thing to do as
the night before was such a bad night for sleeping. I had had some
tea, not much & upped the stakes on the gut rot, was sick even.
Could not get comfortable in bed & eventually fell asleep on
the sofa downstairs. Weird. Yesterday I opted for liquids only
& although I went to bed hungry, I had no pain to keep me
awake, so slept quite well. I’ve tried a little breakfast this
morning, but not my usual repast with huge tea swilling. I still
have something of a headache & dullness, but my walking pace
has picked up from being a crawl, so hopefully I’m feeling better
in general; still do not feel quite right, but improving.
There was me, thinking on Friday night that now that Big Brother
had finished it’s summer run I might get back to being more
productive on an evening, or at least getting to bed at a decent
time. Well… I have been getting to bed early the last couple of
days – essentially weaving to our bedroom to flop after reading the
kids to sleep.
Hmmm… Trains are playing silly buggers again. Yesterday was OK,
but Monday’s didn’t turn up. Today we change at Rochdale for some
reason…
Still waiting outside Rochdale station to pull into the platform,
so there could be summat up with the line, this morning, I guess –
sigh.

It’s a hot day today. Perhaps this is why people have been cranky on the phone? Had a really shitty day at work, with an above average ‘sanctimonious fool’ call rate. Also a general lack of back up to queries has not assisted my mood any. Matty packed it in & walked out yesterday. Still… I don’t suppose I care so much now as I am on the train home & no longer have think until tomorrow. My thinking capacity has been somewhat impaired recently. Picked up another cold/cough, am tired, it is, as mentioned, hot. I’m just a dumb-ass jack-ass – don’t ask me nuffink.

Here’s me trying to remember what we did Saturday…?
Ah, that was it… not much :)
A bit of moving things up from the front bedroom to the attic. I was planing a haircut, but we did not get the kids marshalled until too late in the day for that.
Sunday was going to be a big decorating day for me… Try to get some progress on the front bedroom. Louise’s mum was going to come over & they were going to go off & leave me alone in the house to get on with things & concentrate. Louise’s mum was late though, & just when we were giving up, she arrived… with the news that the trains were not running… So, That scuppered the plans that they should go off somewhere. Past the initial frustration & the repeated explanations & incredulity from Louise’s mum (justifying & over justifying the situation) we did settle into a routine that let me do some decorating. Did not get as much as we would have liked done, but this is the nature of things, especially when Jack insists he wants to help (when he hinders, so he cannot) & gets upset that it is not possible. He is interesting in that respect. He is not good at accepting no as an answer & will continue to ask & plead when something is out of the question, & then get upset. It’s a common kiddie tactic, which parents can generally be worn down with until they concede something. It actually rarely works for Jack (with me) as I will either yes or no. Louise will compromise or distract on some extreme occasions (as in reality I may do). On the whole though, this tactic does not work, yet he still persists…
Anyway – I got the polystyrene wallpaper covering the outer wall (reason required: a couple of cold spots that attract condensation probably caused by ‘joining stones’). I had intended to start papering over some of the polystyrene paper put up earlier with lining paper, & might have managed it if I had not mixed the paste so badly it was as lumpy as porridge. Had to dash out to buy some more.
Papered round the window & radiator too. That polystyrene stuff is easy to put up… I doubt that the lining paper will be so easy. Then having taken the manky curtains down, I put some more respectable ones up. Had taken down the manky plastic curtain rail too, & needed to replace that with one from another room (downstairs back – wooden venetian planned there). Had to go & scrounge a drill off my neighbour, Andy (Hamish daddy) as having literally searched high & low in my house for my drill, I found nothing. Moving things about so much is perhaps going to make things seemingly disappear until you straighten yourself out properly again.
Upshot: Well, it’s really weird how much more neat a room can look with a uniform wall and a good pair of curtains. By no means finished, but the transformation is quite satisfying. I have to try to transform this satisfaction into something more akin to momentum to actually finishing the job. i’ll never get anywhere if I do not.
At least I managed to get ZUM! #10 archived onto the ZUM! site (albeit in what you might call a ‘beta’ stage – so no real links yet). Still a goodly amount of work to do, but a good start.

Not feeling especially Inclined to actually be writing at the moment. No real reason other than a nagging feeling of discontentment, that has no reason for being there.
Humbug – even the Train conductor is over cheery this morning.
Eve was awake at me going to work again this morning. I recall a time when Jack used to wake early as well & I’d have Louise & Jack waving me of to work. Now Louise & Eve… no doubt in a few years, it will be the new kid – which Is a good thought (unlike actually going to work).
Hurumph – I was totally on my own again yesterday – which Is a bit like old times in a way… When we were less busy than now, I would spent a lot of morning shifts as the only person answering the calls, (with no one in sight for asistance) but now with a larger business minded customer base, things are tougher & the customers more arrogant & demanding.
One of my last calls yesterday was from a reseller, or a small time design consultancy who were in the process of moving their site away from us (thus we no longer controlled where It was pointed) Unfortunately for them it also coincided with our server moves, resulting in the website dropping of the web, but our not really having much we can do about that (as we no longer control it). The transfer of control of the domain not being complete – they name Is between 2 stools & all in all – there’s not much that can be done. I need the holes In my logic fixing, as I am aware there are some assumptions that I feel are incorrect, & specific information on areas that I am lacking. I have a basic honesty problem… I cannot bullshit completely; I can wing it on shaky knowledge, but I cannot just fob someone off.
Hmm… ranted on a bit there. Cannot say that I feel any more content – but then, perhaps this is what is bugging me… That & the feeling that I am not getting on with things as well as I would like to do.
Oh, reading the headline on someone else’s newspaper on the Train. That old schadenfreude… :) Jeffrey Archer Is going to jail. Funny – innit – the UK would like to think of Itself as a civilised county, but It Is jailing It the last government administration fraudulent shysters. Corruption just like the countries we like to look down on.

What joys will today’s work bring? Sigh…
Eve woke up as I was going. She was alone in our bed, Jack having got Louise to come to him earlier in the night. It was not one of her better wake ups – probably confused, & because of that a bit mad. As I was headed upstairs to relieve myself on the toilet, I though it a better course of action to try to comfort her instead. She did her ‘I’m mad – don’t touch me’, “no!”. She wanted Mummy, so I let her get off the bed & head down the hall. At the end of the hall she didn’t quite know what to do so turned round to be with a, “daaadee” & arms aloft wanting to be picked up. She did not see that Louise had emerged from their bedroom, until I had picked her up & immediately wanted passing over. All this must have been a tad confusing for her & we went back to our room with her to see if she might calm down. Not really. She now wanted me again, but I really needed to go to the toilet – so I went – much to her consternation… I have to head off for work in a couple of minutes… this, um, has to be done… Much crying & wailing & protestation & I do not have peace. While I sit on the toilet all the noise wakes Jack & he wants to know if Eve has “been sick?”. “No.o.o.o” – Resounds the shout back. Eve is starting to calm down a bit & I give her a cuddle before I go – which upsets her again as she was rather hoping that I would take her downstairs.
So… by the time I get downstairs & leave the house I turn back to see everyone, (Louise, Jack & Eve) at the front window waving me a pyjama bye-bye. Eve seems calmer (not red faced from crying) & she gives me a wave as I head off down the street.

Home from work; it was busy. Marginally less so, but enough to be able to see patterns in the things that were still wrong. Have the odd minute pause between calls… Either that or I am frighteningly getting used to another level of stress.

Busy. Very Busy. Brain numbingly busy day at work. I guess I knew it would be, but I was rather relieved not to have many really idiotic people taking it out on the sap that answers the phone. Had at least one, “Well, I will need to call out the engineers & it will cost me…” to which my response is: “your point being?” Would that it were… I’m too polite.
Major changes to a network as have had to be done always have some knock on effect even if it’s meticulously planned, let alone…
Still, I’m going home now. I only had one fizzle-pop point, but that was probably due to information overload. I am now enjoying just staring out of the train window with no obligation to think. Nice day – sunny – a few menacing clouds just to add that interest to the sky. Nah, sorry – cannot be arsed to write more.

Heh… playing with the eMate again…
I’ve loaded an application called ‘newtscape’ – which is browser for the Newton OS. Catch being; it’s on the card, not the machine itself… & yet to use it on the internet I’d have to put the modem card in… DOH!
Hey, this does not worry! The theory is to look at it & try to figure out what to best use it for. The idea is to see if it assists in the writing of HTML – which it might look good for. Unexpectedly it has given me the option to save general documents as HTML… converting them to tagged text – which is useful. It’s play & familiarise time.
Jack woke up before I set off for work this morning. I heard the padding of feet across the hall upstairs as I was finishing my pint of tea at about 06:15. Met him at the top of the stairs & he asked me if it was Saturday (presumably I would be staying). Had to disappoint him. Told drowsing Louise he was downstairs as I went to give my daily “seeya/loveya” goodbye kiss. Left Jack snuggled in front of The Hoobs jumping about on the telly. He is going to be jiggered when I get home; he was awake in the night a little with his cough, & is probably a bit short on sleep in general at the moment because of that cough. He was tired yesterday evening, but coped well with it – was not an excessively grumpy & obstreperous.